Random bits of my so-called life.

At the time I made that statement, it was technically correct but I realized a few minutes ago that I had been mis-thinking. The sun WAS down, aka below the horizon. The moon WAS up, aka above the horizon. But my brain had done a sort of somersault, thinking the moon was rising? Uh, no? It was setting, in the west, as it does, just like the sun. It just hadn’t done so yet. It is now DOWN, aka below the horizon. I dunno why I get so twisted up about this kind of stuff but I frequently get things backwards.

So back to work today, yay! I was able to ramp it up slowly with a very boring but still has-to-be-done task (replacing screenshots in user guides). Boring as it was, it was kinda perfect for a slow brain warm-up on the first Monday after 10 days or whatever off. Things got a little more exciting when Amazon Woman and I spent more time during our weekly meetup kvetching about COV-idiots than talking about work. We are on the same wavelength about that and polly-ticks and life in general.

But we did get on to work stuff eventually and I expressed some trepidation about an upcoming prodject that involves some stuff I’ve never worked on and remember a lot of “fun” (contentious) conversations swirling around the co-worker who WAS involved the last time it reared its ugly head. But then. I grabbed my battering ram and after a couple hours, I don’t know it all but I have enough working knowledge that I know I can move forward. If I can pull together enough information to ask questions, I am on my way.

So, early January, the days are getting infinitesimally longer, the moon is waxing, and we won’t utter the word omicron for the moment. Onward? Upgrade your masks if you haven’t already and WEAR THEM! Above your nose.

Our spelling bee group was puzzling over the wa8 word that was the last word any of us needed to get to Queen Bee. (wa8 means an 8-letter word beginning with wa and Queen Bee means you’ve found ALL the words.) One of us (not me) got it accidentally and much googling ensued. Wallaroo? Who knew? WallaBY kept getting into my head in general although neither b nor y were valid letters today. So, a word I *hope* I don’t fergit the next time those letters roll around.

So one last xmas gift for the GG. We always have TWO of these glasses around and we managed to break BOTH of the current ones within the last few weeks. They are very cool but very fragile. I set one down, well, weirdly is the only way I can describe it and it fractured. Then the GG emphatically slammed one down and. Again. He didn’t “slam” it in anger, more in exuberance.

So I ordered a couple more. They have them down at the locally owned Ace hardware store and as much as I like to support local businesses, with the omicron cliff, I am only doing in-store shopping for the most essential items. These could wait. Santa paddled by a lot sooner than I expected and I wrapped them up and put a postit note on top of the package: FRAGILE! DO NOT SHAKE or TOSS.

I am even nervous about the limited shopping I do in person. Today a friend reported that two of HER friends got symptomatic breakthrough cases even though they are vaxxed and boostered and wear masks every time they leave the house. Stories like this freak me out but I also don’t always think they are entirely true. I believe the vax status. I believe they wear masks. But. How often are they shopping? When are they shopping? Are the stores jam-packed with people when they shop? Are they mingling with family members? Or friends? Maybe grands too young to be vaxxed? I am not being judgmental. I know people are making excruciating decisions based on constantly shifting data with a heapin’ helpin’ of MISinformation.

P.S. Speaking of misinformation (and whiny tone of voice), I am so glad Twitter de-platformed Marjorie Taylor Greene. What a piece of work! Too bad it’s only her personal account. I can only hope the voters of her Georgia district will also de-platform her. Kee-reist.

When you read 100+ books a year, how do you pick just a few favorites? I do not know. And then there’s the whole thing where I sometimes can’t for the life of me remember what a book is about. This happens even to some of the ones I LOVED while reading them. I can’t connect the title to the story… Anyway, I am gonna try to list a few that fit the nebulous category “colorful”. I’m not even quiiite sure what I mean by that, at least I can’t put it into words. Definitely not all of these books evoke a lot of colors. More like big books with lots of stuff going on but also easily readable. Does that make sense? These are not all high-falutin’ classic literature, but mostly not trite either (like Gone Girl, which I HATED or chick-lit in general, which I don’t *think* Gone Girl is…). Here goes, not in any particular order:

Sirens of Titan: This was a re-read. I probably read this in high school. I remembered soooo little of it but loved every bit.

The Firebrand: Also a re-read and a re-telling of the Iliad from Cassandra’s point of view. Not high-class literature but decent writing and thoughtfully done. A GREAT BIG FUN read. I love Cassandra and during a certain period of my life, I identified with her but that is a long story 🐸

Valentine: Not an easy read (rape and violence) but a good one. Set in Texas.

The Echo Wife: Definitely not everyone’s cuppa but I was fascinated by it. I would suggest not reading it without doing some serious googling.

Moloka’i and Daughter of Moloka’i: Not high literature but good writing and *fascinating* portrayal of life in Hawai’i and its leprosy colonies before (and after) leprosy could be controlled by antibiotics.

Firekeeper’s Daughter: Overall a great book and set in and around MY HOMETOWN, Sault Ste. Siberia. The city description didn’t *exactly* match my memories of the town, which I know inside and out, but that was okay with me.

Ivory Shoals: Orphaned boy makes his way across the swamps of Florida to find his father, who doesn’t know he exists.

Hamnet: I don’t think this needs any commentary.

Careers for Women: Included in the cast of characters are the NY Port Authority and the element aluminum among many human characters.

Cloud Cuckoo Land: I don’t have the “chops” tonight to describe this, just loved it. The ending knocked my socks off!

Project Hail Mary: What can I say?

March: A *fictional* imagination of Mr. March, father of the gals in Little Women. I read this a while back but various details continue to pick at me.

Great Circle: WOW! Fictional female pilot. Barnstorming, bootlegging, bush pilot, “ferrying” planes in WWII England, circumnavigating the world through both poles. Did she survive this last adventure? Like Amelia Earhart, her plane was never found.

I had planned to stop at 10 but it seems I have 13 (14 because I liked the Moloka’i sequel enough to include it). I read other VERY good books and almost NO bad ones. I’m pretty careful about my choices and I usually download a “preview” before committing, which weeds out some static.

If you are a reader, what did you read in 2021? What did you like? Or dislike? I set up my 2022 challenge first thing this morning. (This is Goodreads BTW.)

SPOILER ALERT! If you do the NYT spelling bee and haven’t gotten today’s pangram yet, don’t go down too far ’cause I’m gonna spoil it.

I didn’t need much in the way of grocks today but I figgered that:

1) Today would be the best day to shop because tomorrow the shelves might be a bit sparse.

2) I had to go EARLY because New Year’s Eve is one of those days when the stores are slammed. I remember back in the old days before u-scans and stuff and my main store was the Westgate Kroger and I would go there after work and have to wait in checkout lines that snaked around the store.

3) It’s supposed to SNOW off and on this weekend and I’ll just stay off the roads, thank you very much. I’d be fine with Cygnus but I don’t want some other yay-hoo to hit her. And I can always WALK to the Plum, which I haven’t been doing during COVID because it changed my shopping habits.

So I left for Meijer (Saline Road, which has been better stocked than the Jackson) a little after seven. Man oh man, was it dark. And a bit rainy. And did I say spooky? Yes. There were more cars there than I would have liked but it was pretty empty and I was able to easily stay well away from other people. Most (but not ALL) were wearing masks. I was in and outta there in about 15 minutes, then I headed back to the Plum. I got *there* eight minutes before it opened so I just parked and waited for them to open the doors. Along with several other people. I did get a mini shrimp plate and later kicked myself for not getting a couple lobster tails to freeze but I’ll just order them from Luke’s Lobster.

Then. Home. COVID-era shopping, even the little bits of it that I do in person somehow exhausts me but I had a wee brek and did some chores and dragged myself out to get some gas, etc.

New Year’s Eve used to be kinda fun but I am over it, especially with COVID and the general political climate. I am annoyed today by all of the conflicting advice and COVID news, etc. A couple months ago I stopped keeping track of the case count. For one thing it was too depressing but also I couldn’t make sense of the numbers. There didn’t seem to be any data on how frequently the data was being collected. Also, I well know they are not counting unreported cases.

Today I was struggling with mask information. I have some beautiful cloth masks. With the delta surge, after some close-to-home break-through infections, I upgraded to KN95s. Today a doc on NPR was touting N95s (which I know are the best). I liked that when the reporter asked if the government should just be sending these to every person in the country, he answered, “Yes!” I agree. Why are we messing around letting “the market” determine what supplies are available? (I know I’m ignoring a lot of issues here like what about the rest of the world. But you are probably already bored by my disorganized rant.) For kicks, I started researching N95 masks and quickly and totally went out to sea with the choices and lingo and knowing that there are fancy masks available that are made more for construction activities, NOT COVID. So are my KN95s good enough for my limited early morning grab-and-go in-person shopping? If not, what do I buy? I do not know.

For fun! Today’s spelling bee. It had a word that everyone but me got because it was a “moom” word: umpteen. I did get it but it was one of my last ones, mainly because I wasn’t sure it was a real word. The pangram? Unkempt. It’s a great word and then a commenter in the NYT spelling bee forum went a bit further and made a new definition for it in that she hopes Georgia unkempts governor Kemp in his next election🤣🤣🤣 Oh, when I said “everyone” earlier in this paragraph, there are now FOUR of us doing the spelling bee and the GG was trying to get FlaMan set up with it yesterday. (The GG doesn’t do it.)

Happy New Year! I will NOT last until midnight. I will NOT watch/listen to Umich at the Orange Bowl. If I do they WILL lose. Umich is not my alma mater and I couldn’t care less about football in any case. But Umich is the Home Team for me and I want them to win. If they don’t win, I WILL LIVE. And not have a hissy. Inside family joke. Not a secret, just that I am done done done for tonight. You’re welcome.

I got back from my 0-skunk-30 this morning and was messing around in my kitchen when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out thinking it was a text message from my puzzle partner. Instead I was thunderstruck to find new year wishes from my aunt Radical Betty who died in 2009. Here she is and this is the picture associated with the text.

Of course the message was NOT from Betty. But her phone lives on, used by her son (my cousin), the Mean Old Grunchie Old Grinchie, who also lives in her house, two doors down from the moomincabin. I figgered out who sent the text right away but I’m embarrassed to admit that it took me ALL DAY to process why Betty’s name and picture were there. OF COURSE, it is because when she was alive, I labeled her phone number with her name and a picture that I TOOK(!) in my phone contacts!!! Duh, I am an IT pro? 🐽🐽🐽 I don’t hear from my cousin frequently but not because we don’t love each other. He’s been one of my favorite people on earth since he was six and I was three and we had a fight in the back of our granddaddy’s car over who got to hold a package of smoked fish. I REMEMBER it!

Here’s another pic of RB! It was her birthday and I couldn’t decide whether to post her in bat glasses or the Harry Potter glasses that washed up on the beach that summer. Bat glasses won, in part because I remember a cute emergent talker (“Little Katie”) pronouncing her name “Batty” a billion years ago, also because bat was one aspect of her persona.

Finally, here’s Radical Betty and her son the Grinch kayaking up at the Pictured Rocks a billion years ago.

So. Note to self: Change the contact name in yer phone to “Grinch” and change the picture!

Love y’all,
Yer fav-o-rite klutz, KW

How old were we? I’m thinking I was about six and my brother three? Little kids anyway. Here we are in our shabby little Superior Street living room. First there’s me opening I dunno what and wearing a nightgown with words I can’t make out in the pic. I can ALMOST remember them but not quiiiiite.

And my little brother. In the background of this is the toboggan that was a family xmas purchase that year. I sorta remember using it at Minneapolis Woods (I better remember night skiing there in junior high). Behind that is our front entry and there on the right is a piece of furniture that now belongs to 🐭 but resides in my house for the time being. And my eccentric aunt Roberta’s painting is behind the couch. I have that too.

My weekly facetime with MMCB was this morning and I had totally forgotten what time it was so I was surprised when MMCB₁ pinged. We are all wishing we could STOP talking about COVID all the time. Once again, our SMALL family holiday happened only with the tools of home antigen tests plus one PCR test because of potential exposure to an unvaxxed ESSENTIAL worker who has COVID! Is it okay if I’m ANGRY with the SELFISHNESS of some of these yay-hoos?

Ghislaine Maxwell was a topic at home tonight. Is she guilty? I dunno but she certainly is not innocent. A while back I read something somewhere about how she met up with and “seduced” one girl. It was at a Michigan arts camp and Ghislaine was walking a cute doggy that helped start conversations. My friends, that HAD to be at the Interlochen Melody Freeze (snack bar type place). In addition to running arts camps, Interlochen books high-level concerts of all sorts and is in a beautiful place (between two lakes, roight?). All kinds of people go there. Why not Jeffrey and Ghislaine? I told the GG I didn’t know what I thought about the verdict but that I was not a Ghislaine fan. I suss that she’s not a very nice person.

I was an Interlochen music camper my last two summers in high school. I would NEVER have taken the cute doggy bait or any other bait. I like dogs but I had my OWN Tigger-dog at home and I missed her. I am a one dog woman even on a three dog night. I might have been superficially friendly to a Ghislaine type person and her stoopid dog at the Melody Freeze but I would’ve been too creeped out to let that escalate into trysts with Prince Andrew. Then again, that kind of outfit might not have figgered me as a potential victim because I don’t usually exude “victim” and didn’t even as a teenage girl.

P.S. I am older than Jeffrey and Ghislaine and Prince Andrew, so them trying to victimize me in some stoopid scam at Interlochen is kind of a moot point.

Um, huh? That notification was from my hyper-local weather app. This does not look anything like rain to me. Pretty significant snow shower if you ask me although I don’t think the storm total is gonna be more than a couple-three inches. I dredged my yaxxed-up red boots out for tomorrow morning anyway. Little too much white stuff for sandals. Glad I have no need to be oot and aboot tonight. The Manchester Mountains are apparently navigable but the 🐭 driveway was not. I mean, not that I would have had any need to travel to the Manchester Mountains tonight even if I were oot and aboot.

One of the funniest questions I answered as a parent (of teenagers at the time) was, “Mooom, is it going to snow again?” This was in JANUARY the day after a significant snowstorm (anything more than six inches in my book). I was scratching my head at how to answer that. “It’s January and this is Michigan? Yes, it’s gonna snow again.” I actually think the intent of the question was more like, “Are we finished with THIS storm?”

When I say sandals, I mean yaxxed-up close-toed Keens with tights and Smartwool socks inside them. A childhood/facebook friend living in the southern lower (like I do) actually wears SUMMER sandals with no socks throughout the winter. She has posted pics. She also once helped a neighbor (immigrant from a warm country) get her car moving on a patch of ice using a bath mat for traction. That’s a trick that isn’t up my sleeve but this friend is super-smart. The Beautiful Mimi.

I held off on posting tonight because we were waiting for our racoon to arrive safely from visiting his fam down in the beautiful Carolinas. He is home and can’t get up the mountainous driveway but so glad he is home safe.

The GG says Oooga Booga. Whatever

Actually it wasn’t Water Boi. It was Vactor 2100i. We couldn’t see all the letters on the truck because it was behind trees. There were two of these things plus a smaller city truck and that whole crew of chiefs out there conferring in the street. Stayed for maybe 15 minutes and left without obviously doing anything. No problems with any of our utilities so not sure. Storm sewers maybe? Or just a convenient place for a conflab. I dunno but that was about as exciting as it got around here today. Except for the sleet that happened as people were once again scrambling to get out the door at 0-skunk-30.

The GG went to O-haaaa-o again, mouse went to work, and lizard got some much-needed extra sleep then hung out with me until mid-afternoon or so. She is also off work this week and we had a quiet day of puzzles and other quiet activities. I started a fun new book Great Circle. The Big Lake They Call Gitchee Gumee is (unexpectedly) a minor character in that a couple crashes into it in a Cessna, orphaning an infant. Sault Ste. Siberia even gets a brief mention. Hey, I used to fly out over Lake Superior in a Cessna. My dad drove it and we did not crash. No orphan.

Delete long rant about the current lack of available COVID tests, people who would rather travel to be with family and possibly pass the disease to them without TESTING after possible exposures before traveling, and so much more. People, for most of us, xmas is just a day. If I had to be alone for the holiday I may be sad but I would use an old trick of mine which is to think, “In 24 hours, it’ll be tomorrow and xmas will be over.” And the stores will be jam-packed with people taking COVID risks to return crapola that they didn’t want for xmas. I always tell my kids if they don’t want something they are welcome to re-gift it or donate it or whatever. But I also try to stick to their gift lists. At any rate, it’s a no-guilt policy.

When I was a kid in the yooperland, xmas was magical to me with all the lights and music and gifts and the events at my grandparents’ and aunt and uncle’s houses and sometimes the cousins from out of town were even around. One year I remember my dad driving us up the “hill” through a huge snowstorm to our little airport to pick up my Planet Ann Arbor cousins from the old Blue Goose prop-jet, the biggest plane that could land there. And even the xmas eve church service was fun. I knew all the xmas carols at an early age and by age three, I was singin’ it sister! Loud, clear, and in tune. O Come All Ye Faithful… etc.

When my first beach urchin was two months old, we traveled to the yoop to spend xmas with my parents. Driving up there we were in an ice storm. Driving back we were in an ice storm. We had freezing rain the whole time we were up there to the point where we couldn’t even walk around outside. No YakTrax in those days. I swore I would never do that again and we haven’t, although there were times we went up there for a few days AFTER xmas. In those early days I had TWO WEEKS of vacay and I decided if I was gonna use that up on the yooperland, it would be in the SUMMER!

The best memory I have of that ridiculous trip was when I walked in the door and put my baby girl in my mother’s lap and HER (the baby’s) WHOLE FACE LIT UP IN A HUGE GRIN! Did my baby actually remember my mother from the last time they saw each other – when she was two WEEKS old? I’d like to think so.

P.S. I do understand that those who have elderly relatives want to spend holidays with them and understand how difficult our choices are with the ongoing COVID plague.

Everyone but me had to be up and out early this morning. One person to work and the other two to hike 15 miles in northern Ohio. My plan was to get up and shower BEFORE everyone but some last minute REM dreams put me 15 minutes behind schedule. Plan B? I will stay outta the fray while youz guyz break yer neckz getting out the door. Just make sure you leave a second pot of coffee for me if you drink the whole first one. It’s a little Mister Coffee, which makes more than enough for me and the GG but more is needed for additional people. I texted this request to the beach urchins because the GG is the King of Cryptic Text Messages, not to mention very unreliable about reading them.

I didn’t go back to sleep. I had the luxury of getting up and having my coffee alone in the dark, catching up on news, blahgs, and other social media posts. I took a shortened version of my usual walk, mucked around with various dish and kitchen chores, then the puzz and spelling bee, and finally I took Cygnus out for a little spin during the first hour or so of Sunday Jazz. The GG apparently hasn’t noticed how muddy she is… And then I came back and finished my boooook. Which I liked better and better as I closed in on the ending, partly because the family tree finally started clicking into place for me. I don’t view that as a flaw of the book. I think it was an integral part of the discovery process the main character went through learning about herself and her family history and as a reader I was along for the ride.

The beach urchins had soooo much fun here last night that they’re staying another night. That led to a minor scramble for what to cook because there weren’t quiiiiite enough xmas leftovers for all of us. Instead I am quick-thawing some little filets, which the hiking urchin is looking forward to after her 15 miles. The GG pretty much eats whatever I throw together without complaint and steps in as Grill Master whenever I want him to, which he will do tonight.

The gift tag is on a package containing a beautiful book about tapestry weaving, to go along with the Mirrix tapestry loom I had on my xmas list. It’s a “pocket” sized loom, which seemed manageable for somebody like me who is having to PUSH myself to get back into doing fiber arts. As one of my beach urchins said, “But mooooom, you WORK full time.” Yes. But. I have my new loom put together but I don’t have it warped yet… And this MUST be about the most boring blahg entry I have ever written so I’ll put it out of its misery.

Sayonara, KW

Caaaaaaalm. And more balaclavas. Three of them, yay! And some other really cool stuff.

Home antigen tests are the new black. I know they aren’t perfect but since no one is symptomatic or has known exposure, we trusted them for our small get-together today. Just us and our two adult children. Of course I then searched online with an eye to replenishing our supply and everyone is out of stock. I think I knew they would be.

For various reasons, our kids did not arrive until late morning today. I had Eggs Benny all queued up by that time except for the hash browns. A while back I sorted out my freezer and I THOUGHT I found two partial bags of frozen hash browns so I put them together in one big ziplock bag. So I wouldn’t lose track of them… When I took them out this morning, there was a partial bag of hash browns and a partial bag of PEAS!!! Nope. The GG saved the day with some hash browns in a milk carton form factor that he uses for camping in the Lyme Lounge.

Gift opening once happened at the crack of dawn but it didn’t happen until maybe afternoon today, which was just fine. After that, despite thoughts of an afternoon walk, everybody but me did a jigsaw puzzle. I am not that kind of puzzler but I used the time to reeeeeead. My current book is The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois. It’s very good overall although there are some flaws but most books have those.

The pic is another of my gifts with some fuglies of my own very important people posing below it.

I needed just a few more grocks today so I steeled myself for Plum Market when it opened. I knew it would be ultra busy today and yes, there were more cars in the lot when I got there than the usual 3-5 but it wasn’t crayzee yet (I have a first-hand report that it got that way later). Then I had an errand at the liqwire store, which I did at 9 when *they* opened. Only one other [masked] customer but the two guys behind the counter were not masked. I didn’t have to get near them but fingers crossed. [Note that I LOVE these guys! They are vaxxed but still.]

Shopping is so stressful these days that I took Cygnus for a River Ride after the liqwire store. As I drove, the heavy fog started to lift and Mr. Golden Sun made a weak appearance, which was prettier in person. It was NOT cold today. There is no snow on the ground and the temps went up to 50-something this afternoon. It’s really too warm for a faaaaar in the faaaarplace but we have one anyway.

I had a great xmas eve day overall. It was a company holiday and a Busman’s Holiday for me. I have almost everything cooked or prepped for our xmas dinner, which will be a small affair with a dcuk and some of the usual side dishes. I even pre-cooked the hollandaise for the eggs benny I make twice a year for holiday breakfasts. Thanksgiving and xmas. The GG was off gallivanting on Ohio portions of the North Country Trail with one of his girlfriends and not getting all holiday-style frenetic in my house. Like: GG: Do you need me to do anything? Me: Yeah, GO somewhere!

I keep telling people this xmas MUST be calm and simple and I hope it is.

So I read an article in the local on-line news rag (MLive) this morning that made me see red. It was about a bunch of “super-careful” people who attended a wedding that became a super spreader event. Even though “most” of them were VAXXED.

I’m not gonna link to it, in part because it’s probably behind a paywall. Also because it was an absolutely horribly written article. I got the gist but I couldn’t follow the trajectory of wedding events to save my life. Flint, Michigan (yes, THAT Flint), Wisconsin (the state, no specific location), and California (the bay area) were all mentioned. WHERE was the wedding? It wasn’t clear!

Some things that particularly gave me fits:

— Most people were vaxxed. Most?
— These people were super-careful.
— A lot of them were health care workers.
— They were masked. Until they weren’t.

That last point? Why were they not masked? BECAUSE YOU CANNOT EAT THROUGH A MASK!

And then there was this tidbit, which I will paraphrase. “People got to drinking and pulled down their masks to dance and mingle.”

Really? They were drinking? At a wedding? Who does that? Apparently they got a little lax in their “super-careful” habits. Who could’ve predicted that?

These folks may THINK they are super-careful but THEY ARE NOT! I don’t know where the wedding happened but driving from Michigan to Wisconsin and back is do-able even though Lake Michigan is a pretty big obstacle. Anyone traveling from Michigan/Wisconsin to California had to have FLOWN.

And I am NOT against drinking. As I write this, I am sipping a ‘hattan while waiting for the weirdest combo of leftovers ever to heat up in Gretchen. But I am alone in my chitchen. I am not at a party somewhere with a whole bunch of people who are throwing caution to the wind as they mingle.

Being super-careful is staying home, doing outdoor activities AWAY from other people, getting VAXXED, and wearing a GODDAMN MASK if you have to be anywhere near other people. I do all of those things yet every time I make a masked mad dash to get grocks at 0-skunk-30 when I can totally avoid even the unwashed unmasked in the aisles, I worry that I have collected a stray virus particle or whatever from somebody else.

Praise be to our essential workers who have been masking and double-masking throughout this whole debacle to help keep the rest of us afloat. Plus the business owners who have innovated to allow their employees and customers to be as safe as possible. And everyone who isn’t pandemic fatigued enough to stop following the virus’s still unknown rules.

People, we HAVE TO PULL TOGETHER ON THIS! Vax, wear a mask, and don’t congregate. Sigh.

And yes, I do know it was yesterday. Somehow I got all caught up in squoils yesterday. In the attic. Yes. The GG worked on that issue all day today and I did not hear any squoils AT ALL. EVER! Note that no squoils were harmed with all of this.

And I was puzzled by Jane’s comment until I finally made the GG actually READ my blahg. He can be sporadic about that. He can’t really keep up with my blahg but then again, *I* can’t really keep up. Anyway, I know there is a squirrel [live] trap at the Old Cabin up in the yooperland but apparently My Dear Uncle Harry also kept one in his garage down here on the planet. MDUH moved house last summer and the GG was involved in some of the moving / disposing efforts but I wasn’t really keeping track and didn’t have a clue about any squirrel traps. Apparently the GG took it to Habitat or somewhere. Hmmm, maybe we could’ve used it here…

So, what I don’t like about the Bleak Midwinter days that surround the solstice. The hours of gray skies throughout some of the days. What I dooooo like? The morning and evening dark. If the skies are clear I can see the stars. If not, it doesn’t matter because I can make my own light with candles and/or LEDs and/or a faaar in the faaarplace. I love the hunkering down in the dark stuff. I guess you might call it hygge, which is a word that no matter how many times I look it up I can’t remember how to pronounce it or exactly what it means. I think the word hygge is Scandinavian.

People often peg me as Scandinavian but I am not, at least that I know of. I’m a British Isles “mutt”, mainly Scot with other stuff and maybe a skosh of German. I am as WASPy as all getout in any case (minus the P because it stands for protestant and I am not religious). It’s entirely possible there’s some Viking stuff in my ancestry way back when but I haven’t tried to look it up. I don’t actually think my house qualifies as hygge (we have too much crapola) but little corners of it might.

We reached our earliest sunset (5:04 EST) something like a week ago and are on the upswing at 5:08. We haven’t yet hit our latest sunrise, which I know from experience is 8:05 and goes on for daaaaays.

Belated solstice cheers! -KW

The GG is in a constant battle with the squirrels and chipmunks that take over his bird feeder and we won’t talk about the Squirrel Electrification Program, except to say that it doesn’t seem to deter the squirrels very much. I’ll be sitting working in teleCubelandia, which is across from the Blue and Only Bathroom and I’ll hear a bunch of banging outside. It startled me the first couple times until I figured out that squirrels were swinging the feeder around.

Sometimes there are bigger varmints than squirrels. A couple weeks ago, I woke up at that Batscope Hour wondering if somebody was trying to get into the house or whatever. I roused the GG with, “WHAT is that noise?” Him: “Hnnnnuh?” Me: “You can’t HEAR it?” He came to life at that and looked out the bathroom window to see a RACCOON on the feeder.

BTW: this is an example of why I don’t need a traumatizingly loud smoke alarm system because the raccoon’s antics were really not that loud but they did wake me up. Upon reflection, if a PERSON was trying to bash their way in, it would be MUCH LOUDER.

The other noises I’ve been hearing lately are scurrying noises that I thought were on the roof. Nope. Well maybe some of them. But others are apparently in the attic. BTW, when I say “attic”, to get to the “attic”, you have to put a step ladder up inside a closet and open a trap door. It is NOT usable space in any way, shape, or form. For all practical purposes, this is a one-story ranch-style house with a dungeon.

I was thinking we’d have to hire someone to remove the squirrels (humanely, I mean) but the GG says he has a plan… … …

So, we’ll see. In other confusion, after texting me from Sparrow Meats to ask if I wanted anything, he then FAILED to notice my reply to request lamb stew meat… He went BACK down to Kerrytown to get lamb stew, TWO chickens, and some form factor of beef. So now I have almost more food than I can fit in my fridge/freezer. I guess we won’t need much for a while, at least not meat.

It is the Tuesday before xmas and I am hanging in the chitchen listening to COVID gloom and doom after a work day. The GG is out in the She-shed working on “prodjects”, which I THINK means putting my xmas gift together. He likes this holiday a lot more than I do. Cheers!

P.S. Yay for the winter solstice!

We totally missed the full moon this time around because it was cloudy as all get out or raining or sleeting or whatever it was doing. But I got this pic of the waning gibbous this morning. A little fuzzy but not bad and there’s even a little green lens flare. Coincidentally, I posted this on Instagram a short time after my mouse posted a waning gibbous pic from her house. That tipped me off that she was working early today and since I had a pickup from catering this morning, I knew I would see her in a while.

And that pickup was soooo much fun. There was a lot of confusion on both sides, me and the young men who were helping me. Fortunately we were all laughing. I bow down to anyone who braves working in a grocery store during this ongoing disaster and I have not had a bad experience throughout. Pickup, delivery, in-store. Maybe it’s just the stores I shop but these folks rock. I remember the beginning when everyone was told not to wear masks, etc. My grock worker had “old ladies” (like me) coming right smack up to her and talking right in her face. She was thinking (but couldn’t say), “You really shouldn’t be in here at all.”

I do go inside stores now but I ordered a dcuk from catering because I hadn’t seen them out in the cooler yet. I know they’ll put the dcuks out eventually but with COVID, I shop very limited hours. Since I was making an order, I decided to order some filets too. The picture showed four filets but it didn’t note the *units*. I wanted eight filets (they’re small) so I ordered two. When I got in there this morning, I suddenly thought to ask a question. Me: BTW, did I only order *two* filets? Butcher: Yes, yes you did. Me: Oh, actually I want eight. Which was (OF COURSE) no problem. (She wants MORE? YES!) They just pulled eight of them out of the case and packaged them up. My grocery worker suggests that one of the reasons for the ordering apps is to help anticipate how many dcuks (etc.) to order. If I hadn’t also wanted a dcuk, I’d’ve just gone over there and bought filets outta the case. Which is essentially what I did today.

Units? I shouldda known better. The first time I ordered curbside, I wanted heirloom tomatoes. The picture showed four. I ordered a quantity of one, expecting four tomatoes. I came home and found I had ONE heirloom tomato. How could I complain? They gave me exactly what I ordered. Could their app be a little clearer? Sure. But wearing my business systems analyst (web user experience designer) hat, however much we strive to get things right for our users, our apps are not perfect. The grocery apps I’ve been using are pretty darn good and they ramped them up FAST.

So I came home with my dcuk and my filets and some other stuff (hello salmon spread fad) and did the xword and started the spelling bee while drinking my coffee and then… A day of work… A quiet week but after 14 years, being the only team member who does what I do any more, I have PLENTY to do. I also know that if I am not doggedly productive during the holiday season, nobody will beat me up.

Love y’all, KW

I was surprised when I looked at my phone at 0-skunk-30 this morning because I had notifications from a couple people on Linked In congratulating me on my work anniversary. 14 years. Actually that’s not quite true. My work anniversary was in September. I started as an intern and was hired full-time, well, 14 years ago today I guess. I must’ve put my full-time hire date into Linked In. (I rarely look at Linked In BTW.)

My first couple of weeks after my full-time hire were surreal. I had suggested we just wait until after the new year. The boss wisely said, “Oh no, if we do it now, your benefits start right away.” Okay. But nothing much happens at my work at the end of the year because almost everybody takes time off. I had already figured that out plus one of my kids was coming home from California and I wanted to spend time with her. (The other one was in Dakar on study abroad and wouldn’t be home.)

So, my official first day, I got over there and there were something like three vee-hickles in the parking lot. When I got inside, I went to sit down at my computer, which when I was an intern was a big clunky desktop. It was GONE!!! My boss was AWOL. The mystery was eventually solved when I was issued an old clunky laptop. It was a floaty couple of weeks where I didn’t really have anything to do and was told to just show up when I wanted to and otherwise enjoy my holidays. Which I did although with my uber work ethic, it was really nerve wracking. Obviously things smoothed out because I am still there. Having an job during a pandemic has saved my sanity. A telecommuting job, that is. I would be an absolute wreck if I had to work on site.

For some reason, the sidewalks were not icy this morning but the tree branches were. Because we didn’t get anything more than a dusting since yesterday morning and the temperatures did not rise above freezing, whatever was on the trees yesterday stayed there. The ground is not at the “permafrost” stage yet and there wasn’t enough water on the sidewalks for it to stick.

I did end up with a wet you-know-what. I sat down on a bench in the schoolyard to do something with my phone for a minute or two and the bench was covered with ice. I was damp and cold all morning until I finally took Cygnus out for a spin and turned her seat warmer up HIGH. I guess I’ll have to pull out my wool walking skirt.

When the precipitation started up at that Batscope Hour it sounded like needles were coming out of the sky. You know what that means, roight? Ice. The temperature was hovering at around 32 and I had to force myself to look outside. It turned out to be not that bad but I did bag my usual early trip to the farmers market just in case. One of the things on my farmers market list for this morning I ordered from Plum Market catering (dcuk to roast on the gas grill). The other stuff I can get delivered from Argus Farm Stop from some of the same vendors I would buy it from at the market. Don’t worry 🐭, I’ll pick up the dcuk myself. I scheduled it during my personally defined “senior” hours and I’ll have a KN95 mask firmly attached to my face during the extremely limited times I’ll need to interact with anyone.

What a fugly day though. I mean weather wise but it did get to me a bit by the end of the day. The GG finally put the tree up yesterday and decorated it today. I was not in the mood. I don’t really enjoy putting ornaments on xmas trees anyway. I intended to put up my Santa “collection” today but I couldn’t even get moving on that. I think I will not put every single blasted Santa out this year. My usual disclaimer: I don’t really collect Santas. The Comm collected them and sent me some over the years. My collection is hers and mine. It’s not overwhelming and I don’t want to add to it.

That picture a couple days ago. The one where the Twinz of Terror are digging a car out. It had nothing to do with my post about elephants and brooms and TFG. The car is my loverly old Honda Accord (the Dogha) that we bought new in 2001. We’ve owned a lot of great vee-hickles (and a few crappy ones) but that is one of my all-time faves. It was my first Big Girl Car, to borrow a phrase from UKW. I mean, I had a couple mini-vans but those things are Mommy Cars. A Big Girl Car is something a bit different. My Dogha was a top dollar Honda Accord with a V6 engine so some oomph and despite the pic, it was a GREAT snow car. In the pic I had backed it outta the parking area at the cFam Group Home at Hoton Lake and there was just enough of a snowbank (you can’t really see it) that I got it stuck. We were all laughing about this or at least I was. Maybe the Twinz weren’t.

Feeling better about life just writing this. Oh don’t misunderstand. I am not plagued by depression in any way shape or form, at least not for more than a couple hours or so. But writing in this space helps when little bits of the blues try to creep in to my psyche.

Love y’all,
KW

I love my neighbors’ xmas lights and I liked them last evening against the backdrop of the evening sky a half hour or so after sunset. Problem? LpNet’s monster twuk is parked in front and today was “garbage” day so all of his carts were also out there.

It’s not an ideal pic but it is what it is. This is my nice but not fancy neighborhood and I love it here. I don’t aspire to be anything more than a lowly iPhoneographer so I don’t really care. I decided shortly after I got my first iPhone that one device was enough, especially one that fit in my pocketses. I actually think the iPhone cameras are pretty good, even that first one I bought as an early adopter back in 2007.

Twitter play:

Me when the iPhone was first announced but not on sale yet: Someday I may need a phone / camera / GPS (etc. etc. etc.) but it probably won’t be the iPhone.

Me after spending about five minutes with an iPhone at the Apple store: GIMME!

Financial suicide ensued.

It was kinda fun being an early adopter. I remember when my community college prof mentioned iPhones and I whipped mine out. His eyes bugged out. “Can I hold it?” Same kind of thing when I started my job. Of course that little bit of envy did not last long because pretty soon everybody had one or an Android or whatever.

Getting porterzoomized tonight and so good night.

I was texting with my BFF Sam this evening and we were having so much fun that I put off doing my blahg. I wasn’t sure what I was gonna blahg about anyway so we texted for something like an hour.

So how do you meet your best friend? I met my bestie Helen when I was a baby because her mom and my mom were pretty good besties. I met my bestie Laurie because our moms pushed us together in kindergarten. We kinda ruled the neighborhood throughout grade school. Mostly Laurie ruled it.

I met my bestie Sam on Radical Betty’s back deck (which is unsafe nowadays so don’t even try to sit there or climb the staircase). I was 20-something then and my cousin Jay knew Sam at our beloved Moo-U and brought her to the moominbeach to meet our family. I liked Sam a lot but didn’t really foresee that we would end up being best friends. Because who would know? I was struggling with my life at that time and…

Somehow I got to know Sam and her family and their house south of the Moo-U campus where we both went to school and her dad was a PHD botanist. We had a lot in common since both our families have roots in both the lower and upper peninsulas of the Great Lake State. We have the moomincabin on Lake Superior and she has the Green Cabin on Manistique Lake.

Anyway, although I didn’t really know it, I needed a Sam fix today and I soooo got one 🧡🧡🧡

And so here we go into another f*cking COVID xmas. We are not planning any big get-togethers and we are armed with home antigen tests. We are (I am) still nervous.

I am kind of not listening to the news much lately but I was schlepping laundry through the chitchen when the elephant brooms thing flew by. Yes. My exact feelings about The Former Guy. Shitola.

Disclaimer: As an adult female, the word in the title always reminds me of a violent act. In fact it has nothing to do with that act. For a few summers when I was a beach urchin, our friends the Shermans came to visit for a couple weeks, parking their VW bus and popup camper in our yard, collaborating on meals, and sharing our outhouse with us. There were five kids in that family and the youngest was Willie. At about the age of three, his aspirations in life involved growing up to be a mommy and wearing a “rapern”, which was how he pronounced “apron”. He didn’t grow up to be a mommy but he did marry and was/is a good father by all reports. I really miss those days sometimes. We had SOOOO MUCH FUN!

The Commander was a champion apron wearer and made most of her own aprons. I never quite got the knack of apron-wearing but then again, I usually cook in crappy old clothing that can be easily thrown in the washing musheen. That’s what washing musheens are for, roight?

The beach urchins emulate their grandma’s penchant for wearing aprons and in light of that, I kept all of her aprons and they hang in the moomincabin “hallway” for anyone to use.

For a few years back in the day the cFam invited my brother’s widow and kids to the annual xmas party. The one we aren’t doing AGAIN this year because you know why. During that time we were also still exchanging gifts, a tradition we eventually abandoned because none of the adults needed anything. We were all flinging and would rather hang around, gabbing and drinking (responsibly of course). Grandchildren got gifts from their grandparents so there was a gift-opening session to add to the festivities.

But back then, I needed to come up with gifts for my side of the family (which was fine!) and one year I made aprons for my daughters and nieces. I had a great deal of fun with this, creatively (I thought🐽) using mis-matched fabrics for different parts of the aprons, the skirt, the waistband, the straps, and a ruffle along the bottom. The pic (it’s not the best pic) is my blueberry version, probably for Mouse, who likely has the most blueberry picking DNA of any of my parents’ four granddaughters.

This is making me want to do fiber arts stuff again. I will get there…